Refill is coming to Swindon!

As part of a national campaign to avoid the consumption of unnecessary single-use plastic, Refill Swindon is on a mission to make refilling your water bottle as easy, convenient and cheap as possible, by introducing on every street!

City to Sea, a not-for-profit organisation headed by entrepreneur Natalie Fee, launched the award-winning Refill Scheme in 2015. It’s estimated that the scheme, now being rolled out nationwide with support from Water UK and local water companies, will cut plastic bottle use by tens of millions each year, as well as substantially increasing the availability of high quality drinking water

Over 70% of the UK population have admitted to feeling awkward when asking for water in their own bottle without buying something else. However, Swindon Refill aims to change this. By encouraging cafes, bars, restaurants and other businesses to sign up to the free Refill app and display one of the distinctive blue stickers in their windows, refill stations will quickly become identifiable throughout the town.

7.7 billion plastics bottles are bought across the UK each year, wasting valuable resources and creating an abundance of waste that remain on land or in the sea for over 450 years. The UK recycle only half of the 38.5 million bottles that are used every day, it has been estimated that if we continue at the current rate, there will be more plastic in our oceans than fish by 2050.

This is a simple and practical scheme that everyone can get involved in – making just a small change in your everyday behaviour to collectively make a difference to the towns plastic use and waste. The scheme has already been successfully set up in neighbouring towns and cities such as Cheltenham, Bath and Oxford, with leaders of the Campaign – Bristol – estimating that a swap to refilling rather than buying just once a week per person would reduce plastic bottle consumption by over 20 million a year in just one city! So now it’s Swindon’s turn to get involved!

We are always looking for volunteers who would like to get involved or sponsors the project. Find out more about Refill Swindon and how you can take part by emailing refill.swindon@gmail.com. Visit the Refill website at www.refill.org.uk to download the free Refill app and find out more about the movement.

August sees the start of the Refill Swindon team spreading these stickers across the town! Get in touch to join in!

Explore

Events

SCAN on Facebook

Fwd from Repair Cafe: 'Exciting news! Incredible Edible have got enough helpers to be able to run a Crop Swap at the next Repair Cafe and Free Shop!Bring along your homegrown fruit & veg to swap, or take some away for a donation to Incredible Edible :-)'SCAN are also at this event - please see event details. ...

Thanks to everyone involved in making the first 'No Plastic Bands' gig at The Castle a good night. Eclectic music, good company, conversations about plastic (rock and roll!), shiny happy people laughing and we made some much-needed money towards the Refill Swindon campaign 🙂Next gig in August, details to follow shortly... ...